Collected Poems - Softcover

Roberts, Lynette

Softcover

ISBN 10: 185411011X ISBN 13: 9781854110114

Publisher: Seren, 1995

Synopsis

Alun Lewis, (1915-1944), the remarkable poet and short story writer, died, aged twenty-eight, in Burma in the Second World War. Some critics see him as the last of the great Romantic poets, a twentieth century Keats. Others describe his poetry as the path from pre-war Yeats and Auden to post-war poets like Hughes and Gunn. In Wales there are those who think his greater versatility and finer intelligence place him above his contemporaries Dylan Thomas and R.S. Thomas.
This volume contains the complete texts of Raiders' Dawn and Ha! Ha! Among the Trumpets in the way Lewis organized them. It also includes twenty-seven more poems some of which have never been published before. Lewis's Collected Poems is a body of poetry that will last, that transcends the label 'war poetry': it is both complete in itself and full of the promise of greater things.

About this title

Review:

The most assured poet of his generation. --The Listener

Wistfully strong and evocative as those lonely wartime pill-boxes one sees stranded by time on coastal marshes, writing such as this, surely, is still worth our having, and holding - and cherishing? --The Guardian

From the Back Cover:

Perhaps the most remarkable writer of the Second World War, Alun Lewis (1915-1944) died on active service in Burma, aged just 28.

Born and brought up near Aberdare in south Wales, Lewis was educated in Manchester and Aberystwyth before returning to the valleys and the Depression. In 1940, despite his pacifist inclination, he enlisted in the Royal Engineers and then accepted a commission in the South Wales Borderers to fight in India. Becoming a soldier had a stimulating effect on Lewis's writing: Raiders' Dawn appeared in 1942, and early in 1943 a collection of stories, The Last Inspection, was published. Both books were widely acclaimed.

Part of the uniform edition of Lewis's work, this volume contains the complete texts of his two collections Raiders' Dawn and Ha! Ha! Among the Trumpets. It also includes 27 previously uncollected poems. This body of work transcends the term 'war poetry': it is both complete itself and full of the promise of greater things to come.

About this edition

• Publisher: Seren
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 185411011X
• ISBN 13: 9781854110114
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 240